Nganyi RANET

Nganyi RANET is a community radio station set up by the Kenya Meteorological Service to target communities vulnerable to climatic change. The station is based at RANET Climate Resource center in Luanda town, Vihiga County. The radio station and the community resource center were launched by the Kenya Meteorological Services (KMS) on the World Meteorological Day on March 23, 2015 to disseminate weather and climate information. This was after a scientific research that proved that traditional rainmakers have accurate and scientifically competitive weather information. RANET stands for “Radio Internet”. The other part of the station’s name comes from the Nganyi clan, which for many years has predicted rains locally by monitoring the behavior of plants, birds and insects. The Radio broadcasts to approximately 25 – 30 Kilometres radius. Nganyi RANET is among five other RANET community radio stations under the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD), as part of the RANET-Kenya project.

Frequency: 101. 2 FM

Geographical reach: 25 – 30 KM Radius

Language/s of broadcast: Olunyole, the local dialect, Luhya and Kiswahili

Broadcast duration:

Location: Luanda town, Vihiga County.

Estimated audience: 250,000 listeners

Contact Person: Bousted Mukolwe, Administrator

Nganyi RANET Community Radio, locally known as “Anyole Radio” because it targets the Bunyore community who call themselves “Anyole” and broadcasts in Olunyole, the local dialect, has become a valuable asset to the community, delivering accurate and timely weather forecasts that enables farmers to better determine when to plant their crops. The radio station aims at delivering and disseminating climate knowledge to the local community to encourage them to foster climate action. The Climate Resource Centre serves as learning institution for students on environmental and climate related studies.

The radio station focuses mainly on climate-related issues, market information, agriculture and emerging technologies. The station also invites traditional forecasters at least three times a week for a call-in session, so that listeners can ask questions about the prevailing weather conditions. The station thus supplements weather forecasting by Kenya Meteorological Services scientists and traditional forecasters. For generations, Nganyi people have served as rainmakers by helping communities prepare their land and sow their seeds and relaying the information to the community through ceremonies, public meetings and on a person to person engagement. Nganyi RANET community radio has improved this method of disseminating information.